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You Are Here (On Earth)

Posted by timothy on from the human-chauvinist dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "NY Times today has an essay about a map of the entire universe produced by two Princeton astronomers using a variety of data including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Its view begins with the Earth at the bottom and extends back almost to the Big Bang at the top, including such objects as the Sloan Great Wall, 1.37 billion light-years long. The map can be found here."

9 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bad joke. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is no such thing as a good lie.

    There is, however, such a thing as a good model, as any true scientist will tell you. Obviously, the only perfect model of the universe is the universe itself; however, the derivation of useful models which are by design imperfect is absolutely at the heart of science.

  2. I've noticed you troll/flame a lot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    I took a look at your previous posts, and you've got about 50% troll or flamebait moderation. Which tends to tell me that many people here think you're an idiot...no matter what your Mensa card says.

    1. Re:I've noticed you troll/flame a lot by IdleTime · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I took the test, scored enough to be accepted but declined. I saw too many members with the same attitude as the Bad Joke poster and I don't like it.

      --
      If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
  3. Re:Bad joke. by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What are you talking about?

    This is a GREAT model/map for teaching. the general population sit's ther eand simply drools when they see a log chart so this is obviousally not for general public consumption but for scientists and students to use to get a better grasp on spatial locations from earth center at that given point in time.

    pan this all you want, but I was able to teach my child some very important facts about our solar system with this chart. Her astronomical sciences teacher at her middle school was not able to explain a couple of the topics as clearly as this chart/map does.

    This is a great tool, if you are not able to understand it's usefulness that is your loss.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  4. Location and orbit of WMAP by Morgaine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    LOL, that post made the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) sound like a secretive spy satellite. :-)

    Actually, WMAP is a hugely successful astronomical microwave observatory which sits at Earth's second Lagrange Point (L2). L2 is 1.5 million kilometers on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. This informative page shows the location and how the probe got there very clearly.

    The WMAP was launched in June of 2001 and has made a map of the temperature fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation with much higher resolution, sensitivity, and accuracy than its predecessor, COBE. It has been a huge success.

    --
    "The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
  5. Re:Total Perspective Vortex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The sun is within travelling distance.

  6. Re:comoving future visibility limit by JabberWokky · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I've referred to it for many years as the "light cone" or "known space" (not as in Niven's Known Space). It's quite sobering that the universe, even that which we can mathematically predict (i.e., the result of the big bang) is so vast that there are areas that we will never interact with and, relativistially speaking, do not exist for us.

    (And yes, I am quite aware that it's silly to say "never" when it comes to anything like this, but you most often work with the most proven theories. There *may* be an anti gravitational force, for instance, but I'm not leaping off the Eiffel tower anytime soon).

    --
    Evan

    --
    "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
  7. Re:Bad joke. by Ba3r · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you actually looked at the map, and rtfa, you would see that it is not a navigational map, but rather an attempt to juxtapose our insignficance in the observable universe, and our absolute significance in being the point of observation of the universe.

    "Objects close to us may be inconsequential in terms of the whole universe but they are important to us," (Dr. Gott, from the article)

    But then again, your stunning cognitive ability to discredit this 'map' without even understanding why it was done, should silence a mere layman like myself. Mensa would be proud.

  8. Re:complete, sure by noselasd · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And since there is no last digit of pi, the whole thing is ofcourse useless to discuss.